[Bf-funboard] Consistency and customisation questions

[menuetm]

Hi everyone,

Teaching Blender in a High-school, we have some concern on consistency 
and would like to know if they can be resolved:
  - Blendfiles should be for-and backward compatible, but as the API 
isn't, using drivers seems to make the files broken. An OpenGL 2.0 
software works on OpenGL 4.0 hardware and python 3.0 scripts work on 
python 3.3. We can't really drop scripting as it is nearly a requirement 
to work fast on the long term. Is there any plan on having the Blender 
API like OpenGL or Python ?
  - Drivers apply on duplicated objects, group instances, but not on 
dupliverts. It may be normal from a programmer point of view, but 
disturbing from a user point of view and for really big scene where 
1000s of duplicates are needed, Blender slows down with too many 
objects. Would it be possible to have it to work consistently, at least 
as an option ?

With Blender becoming everyday more powerful, it's becoming different 
kind of users. Even in our groups, we notice some students like 
sculpting, other animating, other modelling, etc... Depending on there 
use, they may like to personalize their Blender to accommodate it to 
their everyday use. We like the idea of being able to create your own 
window/editor. Blender starts to look like an OS, with many programs in 
one. Would it be possible to have custom icons to "launch" custom 
addons, editors, etc... ? Maybe in a toolbar or "apps menu" ?

Thanks